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Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905 - May 26, 1995) was one of the earliest directors of Looney Tunes. He and one of his fellow directors, Chuck Jones, dominated the Warner Bros. animation studio after Leon Schlesinger left in 1944. The nickname "Friz" came from his friend, Hugh Harman, who initially nicknamed him "Congressman Frizby" after a fictional senator who appeared in satirical pieces in the Los Angeles Examiner. Over time, this shortened to "Friz".http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-friz-freleng-1621602.html Early Career Freleng was born in Kansas City, Missouri, where he began his career in animation at United Film Ad Service. There, he made the acquaintance of fellow animators Hugh Harman and Ub Iwerks. In 1923, Iwerks' friend, Walt Disney, moved to Hollywood and put out a call for his Kansas City colleagues to join him. Freleng, however, held out until 1927, when he finally moved to California and joined the Walt Disney studio. He worked alongside other former Kansas City animators, including Iwerks, Harman, Carmen Maxwell, and Rudolph Ising. While at Disney, Freleng worked on the Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons for producers Margaret Winkler and Charles Mintz. Freleng soon teamed up with Harman and Ising to try to create their own studio. The trio produced a pilot film starring a new Mickey Mouse-like character named Bosko. Looking at unemployment if the cartoon failed to generate interest, Freleng moved to New York City to work on Mintz' Krazy Kat cartoons, all the while still trying to sell the Harman-Ising Bosko picture. The cartoon finally sold to Leon Schlesinger, who soon secured Harman and Ising to star Bosko in the Looney Tunes series he was producing for Warner Bros. Freleng soon moved back to California to work with Harman and Ising once again.Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age p153 Freleng as Director Early Schlesinger Cartoons Harman and Ising parted ways with Schlesinger over disputes about budgets in 1933. Schlesinger was left with no experienced directors, and therefore lured Freleng away from Harman-Ising to successfully fix cartoons directed by Tom Palmer, which Warner Bros rejected. The young animator became Schlesinger's top director, and he introduced the studio's first true post-Bosko star, Porky Pig, in the 1935 film, I Haven't Got a Hat. The film is notable for being one of the earliest examples of characterization in a cartoon. Porky was a distinctive character, unlike Bosko or his replacement, Buddy. As a director, Freleng gained the reputation of a tough taskmaster. His unit, however, consistently produced high quality animated shorts under his direction. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In 1937, Freleng left Schlesinger's after accepting an increase in salary to direct for the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio headed by Fred Quimby. To Freleng's chagrin, he found he would be working on The Captain and the Kids, adapted from the popular comic strip, The Katzenjammer Kids. The series failed to achieve much success, much as Freleng had predicted.Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, pg. 283. Though skillfully animated, the characters could not compete with the "funny animals" that prevailed at the time. Back with Schlesinger and Warner Bros. Freleng happily returned to Warner Bros. when his contract ended in late 1939. One of the first Looney Tunes cartoon shorts directed by Freleng during his second tenure at the studio was You Ought to Be in Pictures, a cartoon short which blended animation with live-action footage of the Warner Bros. studio (and of Schlesinger veterans such as story man Michael Maltese and even "Leon" himself). The plot, which centers around Porky Pig being tricked by Daffy Duck into terminating his contract with Schlesinger to attempt a career in features, echoes Freleng's experience in moving to MGM. Directorial Achievements Schlesinger's hands-off attitude toward his animators allowed Freleng and his fellow directors almost complete creative control and room to experiment with cartoon comedy styles, which allowed the studio to keep pace with the Disney studio's technical superiority. Freleng's style quickly matured, and he became a master of comic timing. Often working alongside layout artist Hawley Pratt, he also introduced or redesigned a number of famous Warner characters, including Yosemite Sam in 1945, the cat-and-bird duo, Sylvester and Tweety in 1947, and Speedy Gonzales in 1955. Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones (In fact, Freleng actually was the one who hired Joneshttp://chuckjonescenter.org/about/chuck.)would dominate the Warner Bros. studio in the years after World War II, Freleng largely concentrating on the above-mentioned characters and Bugs Bunny. Freleng continued also to produce modernized versions of the musical comedies he animated in his early career, such as The Three Little Bops (1957) and Pizzicato Pussycat (1955). Freleng won four Oscars during his time at Warner Bros., for the films, Tweetie Pie (1947), Speedy Gonzales (1955), Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), and Birds Anonymous (1957). And other Freleng cartoons such as Sandy Claws (1955), Mexicali Shmoes (1959), Mouse and Garden (1960), and The Pied Piper of Guadalupe (1961) were Oscar nominees. Freleng's cartoon, Show Biz Bugs (1957), with Daffy Duck vying with Bugs Bunny for theatre audience appreciation, was arguably a template for the enormously successful format to The Bugs Bunny Show that premiered on television in the autumn of 1960. Further, Freleng directed the cartoons with the erudite and ever so polite Goofy Gophers encountering the relentless wheels of human industry, them being I Gopher You (1954) and Lumber Jerks (1955), and he also directed three cartoons (sponsored by the right-wing Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) extolling the virtues of free-market capitalism, said cartoons being By Word of Mouse (1954), Heir-Conditioned (1955), and Yankee Dood It (1956), all three of which involved Sylvester. Freleng directed all three of the vintage Warner Brothers cartoons in which a drinking of Dr. Jekyll's potion (of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) induces a series of monstrous transformations, Dr. Jerkyl's Hide (1954), Hyde and Hare (1955), and Hyde and Go Tweet (1960) being those three cartoons. Other Freleng fancies were man at war with the insect world (as in Of Thee I Sting (1946) and Ant Pasted (1953)), an inebriated stork delivering the wrong baby (in A Mouse Divided (1952), Stork Naked (1955), and Apes of Wrath (1959)), and characters marrying for money and finding themselves with a shrewish wife and a troublesome step-son (His Bitter Half (1949) and Honey's Money (1962)). In-Jokes Freleng was occasionally the subject of in-jokes in Warner cartoons, with billboards in the background of scenes advertising various products called "Friz" in Canary Row (1950), the "Hotel Friz " in Racketeer Rabbit (1946), and "Frizby the Magician" in High Diving Hare (1949) as one of the acts Bugs Bunny is pitching. Musical Knowledge and Technique Freleng was somewhat of a composer who, along with story man Warren Foster, would come up with a gag the best way possible by working on musical bar sheets. This way, Freleng wrote out the music and placed the right moment for the gag to appear. He was one of a very few directors at Warner Bros. to have musical knowledge of making cartoons. DePatie-Freleng Enterprises Freleng left Warner Bros. Cartoons in November 1962, seven months before the studio closed, to take a job at Hanna-Barbera as story supervisor on their feature Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! After the Warner studio closed in May 1963, Freleng rented the same space from Warners to create cartoons with his now-former boss, producer Dave DePatie (the final producer hired by Warners to oversee the cartoon division), forming DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. When Warner Bros decided to reopen their cartoon studio in 1964, they did so in name only; DePatie-Freleng produced the cartoons into 1966. While much of Freleng's post-Warner work is considered of lesser quality than his earlier achievements, the DePatie-Freleng studio's signature achievement was The Pink Panther. DePatie-Freleng was commissioned to create the opening titles for the 1963 film The Pink Panther, for which layout artist and director Hawley Pratt and Freleng created a suave, cool cat character. The Pink Panther cartoon character became so popular that United Artists, distributors of The Pink Panther, had Freleng produce a short cartoon starring the character, The Pink Phink (1964). After The Pink Phink won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), Freleng and DePatie responded by producing a whole series of Pink Panther cartoons. Other original cartoon series, among them The Inspector, The Ant and the Aardvark, and Hoot Kloot, soon followed. In 1969, The Pink Panther Show, a Saturday morning anthology program featuring DePatie-Freleng cartoons, debuted on NBC. The Pink Panther and the other original DePatie-Freleng series would remain in production through 1980, with new cartoons produced for simultaneous Saturday morning broadcast and United Artists theatrical release. DePatie-Freleng is credited with the creation of Frito-Lay's Chester Cheetah, on the Food Network show "Deep Fried Treats Unwrapped"; as well as creating the colored opening title sequence to I Dream of Jeannie. DePatie-Freleng also contributed special effects to the original version of Star Wars, particularly the animation of the lightsaber blades. By 1967, DePatie and Freleng had moved their operations to the San Fernando Valley. Their studio was located on Hayvenhurst Avenue in Van Nuys. One of their projects featured Bing Crosby and his family called Goldilocks, and had songs by the Sherman Brothers. At their new facilities they continued to produce new cartoons until 1980, when they sold DePatie-Freleng to Marvel Comics, which renamed it Marvel Productions. Later Career and Death Freleng later served as an executive producer on three 1980s Looney Tunes compilation features, which linked together several of the classic shorts with new animated sequences. The Freleng-produced compilation features were his Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982), and Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983). In 1986, Freleng stepped down and gave his position at Warner Bros. to his secretary at the time, Kathleen Helppie-Shipley, who ended up being the second-longest producer of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies franchise, only behind Leon Schlesinger. On May 26, 1995, Friz Freleng died of natural causes in Los Angeles, aged 88. The WB animated TV series, The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, and the Looney Tunes cartoon, "From Hare to Eternity" (which was the last one directed by Chuck Jones), were both dedicated to his memory. Freleng is interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery. Looney Works As a Director See List of cartoons supervised by Friz Freleng As a Writer * Sinkin' in the Bathtub (1930) (uncredited) * So Much for So Little (1949) (with Chuck Jones) N/A * Orange Blossoms for Violet (1952) (with Chuck Jones) N/A * Tweet Dreams (1959) (with Warren Foster) * From Hare to Heir (1960) * Lighter Than Hare (1960) * The Rebel Without Claws (1961) * The Jet Cage (1962) * Devil's Feud Cake (1963) (with Warren Foster) * The Wild Chase (1965) (uncredited) * Corn on the Cop (1965) * Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol (1979) (with Tony Benedict and John W. Dunn) * Fright Before Christmas (1979) (with Tony Benedict (uncredited) and John W. Dunn (uncredited)) (uncredited) As a Producer * Pancho's Hideaway (1964) (with David H. DePatie) * Road to Andalay (1964) (with David H. DePatie) * Zip Zip Hooray! (1965) (with David H. DePatie (uncredited)) (uncredited) * It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Cats and Bruises (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Roadrunner a Go-Go (1965) (with David H. DePatie (uncredited)) (uncredited) * The Wild Chase (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Moby Duck (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Assault and Peppered (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Well Worn Daffy (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Suppressed Duck (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Corn on the Cop (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Rushing Roulette (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Tease for Two (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Tired and Feathered (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Boulder Wham! (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Chili Corn Corny (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Just Plane Beep (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Hairied and Hurried (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Go Go Amigo (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Highway Runnery (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * Chaser on the Rocks (1965) (with David H. DePatie) * The Astroduck (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Shot and Bothered (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Out and Out Rout (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Mucho Locos (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * The Solid Tin Coyote (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Mexican Mousepiece (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Clippety Clobbered (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Daffy Rents (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * A-Haunting We Will Go (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Snow Excuse (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * A Squeak in the Deep (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Feather Finger (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Swing Ding Amigo (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Sugar and Spies (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * A Taste of Catnip (1966) (with David H. DePatie) * Daffy's Diner (1967) (with David H. DePatie) * Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol (1979) * Fright Before Christmas (1979) (with David H. DePatie (uncredited) and Hal Geer (uncredited)) * The Yolks on You (1980) (with David H. DePatie (uncredited) and Hal Geer (uncredited)) (uncredited) * The Chocolate Chase (1980) (with David H. DePatie (uncredited) and Hal Geer (uncredited)) (uncredited) * Daffy Flies North (1980) (with David H. DePatie (uncredited) and Hal Geer (uncredited)) (uncredited) Trivia * In most of his shorts, Freleng's nickname ("Friz") can be seen in ads (usually as the brand name for a soda or a gelatin dessert). * Freleng made a cameo appearance as a caricatured version of himself in the Animaniacs episode "Back in Style", along with Chuck Jones. Characters Created Porky Pig.gif|Porky Pig IGH1.png|Beans Sylvester happy.png|Sylvester Tweety.gif|Tweety (modern) Granny.gif|Granny (modern) SpeedyGonzales.png|Speedy Gonzales (With help from Robert McKimson and Hawley Pratt) YosemiteSam.jpg|Yosemite Sam Clyde.png|Clyde Bunny Rocky and Mugsy.jpg|Rocky and Mugsy Spikechester1.jpg|Spike and Chester Jose und Manuel.jpg|Jose and Manuel Loon1.gif|Hector the Bulldog Spike (A Waggily Tale).png|Spike (A Waggily Tale) Slowpoke.jpg|Slowpoke Rodriguez Gallery Mel friz chuck.png|Friz at the Academy Awards with Mel Blanc and Chuck Jones DzyhbD-X0AIZmFQ.jpg|Friz (far right) with Frank Tashlin, Tex Avery, Henry Binder, Leon Schlesinger, and Ray Katz c. 1936 87f85-rossfreleng.jpg|Friz with Virgil Ross (left) going over a Tweety and Sylvester storyboard ThreeDirectors0001.jpg|Friz with Johnny Burton, Robert McKimson, and Chuck Jones circa 1958 Tumblr nehdnrGcFD1rsovmko1 1280.jpg|Friz with Treg Brown, Robert McKimson, Chuck Jones, Eddie Selzer, and John W. Burton 77218-28bfrelengandhawleypratt215531427_c8e820542d_z.jpg|Friz with Hawley Pratt friz at drawing bugs.jpg animaniacs chuck and friz.jpg|Friz Freleng with Chuck Jones caricatured in Animaniacs References Category:Directors Category:Animators Category:Producers Category:Real People Category:Looney Tunes Animators Category:Looney Tunes Directors Category:Deceased Category:1905 Births Category:Featured Person Category:1995 Deaths